Applying for Ph.D. in Europe

Recently many people have asked me about the application procedure for Ph.D. in Germany, and answering the same questions to everybody individually is a pain, so I have decided to write this post about a general application procedure for PhD in Germany (or Europe in general).

Selecting the topic: The first and most important step is to decide which topic you want to work on. If you are unsure of the topic, then you can go through profiles of some researchers to know what they are working on and which topics might interest you. You can also talk to your professors, advisers or colleagues about the topic that you may want to work on. The topic should be scientifically important and feasible in the given time frame and budget. Once you have decided the topic(s), you can start the planning for applications.

Application Procedure: There are usually two ways to apply for a position. The traditional method is to look at the profiles of different researchers and see who is working on the topics you are interested in, and approaching them for a PhD position. You can email them stating your interest in working on the topic with him/her. If they have an open position, they will inform you about the detailed application procedure. Having a one-to-one conversation with them will be helpful in understanding (a) what your thoughts are about the topic and (b) what do they expect from you.

The second way is to apply to some graduate schools or research schools or standard application procedures of certain institutes or via some scholarship programs such as DAAD or Erasmus Mundus etc.. This method is helpful because most of these schools have a fixed budget which is independent of the budget of the researchers. Also due to standard procedures, you don't have to contact each and every person at that institute individually.

To have better chances at selection, it is advised to follow both the paths.

The application usually requires you to submit following documents:

1. A brief, concise curriculum vitae. The CV should contain objective information about your academic career, such as your grades at undergraduate and masters level, performance at entrance/qualification examinations, publications, projects you have worked on, schools & conferences attended and co-curricular activities.

2. Statement of Purpose: In this statement, you are expected to describe your broad aims during your Ph.D., why you are applying at that place, what are your expectations, and how will the institute benefit from you. It can also be used to assert certain qualities about you which are not stated in your CV. (This is similar to the statement you have to submit when you apply to Universities in USA.)

3. Research interest: Along with the application, you have to submit your research interest wherein you have to explain which topic you want to work on, why are you interested in that topic, and what are your ideas or inputs you have on that topic.

4. Letters of recommendation: Usually you have to submit at least 2 letters of recommendation from people who know you well, for example, someone who has guided you during a project, or a person who has taught you courses at bachelor's or master's level.

These are the documents that you would require for application, although the particulars may differ from case to case. The whole procedure from deciding the topic till the successful submission of the application usually takes few months, so it's always good to start early!

The Future of Learning

Many of us (including me and some of my friends) have gone through high school and college, cursing the way certain subjects were taught. It's not the fault of the teachers but the fault of the system. And with the changing times and technological advancement, the education system has to evolve too. Given the fact that there is generally a lack of good teachers around the whole world, we need to come up with something which will solve the problem of education. So being an addicted internet user, I was browsing through some YouTube videos when I came across a video about some basic topics on physics by a channel MinutePhysics, and I was fascinated with it! In the following days, I found few more channels which had similar educational yet interesting videos. So while I was getting more and more educational video recommendations, I bumped into a few TED talks about changing the educational system, and this post is about them. (Even if you don't read my commentary about the videos, I strongly suggest you should watch all of them.)

What is really the problem of the public education system?

The first one that I came across was by Sir Ken Robinson on what is wrong with the current education system (Do Schools Kill Creativity?) in which he talks about how education destroys creativity. As he says in the talk “Everybody is born as an artist, but we are educated out of creativity.” Who does actually benefit from the current system? As he points out, the education system was developed in the interest of industrialization and in the image of it. Schools are organised like factory lines, producing workers. We should stop teaching in schools with the production line mentlity. In other video (Bring on the Learning Revolution – I especially love the part between 10-15 min) he talks about reforming the education system to help kids to discover what they love to do rather than standardising everything. (I should mention here that I have become a great fan of Sir Robinson. He has such a great sense of humour and a British accent! No wonder his talks are so interesting!)

What can we do about it?

The talks from Sir Robinson summarize what is wrong with the education system. But what can we do about it? There is a brilliant talk by Sugata Mitra (SugataMitra's new expetiments in self teaching) on a radically new experiment and I don't want to take away any surprises by talking about it so you should go ahead right away and see it.

(Now assuming you have seen the above mentioned video) That was one way to reform education. What else can we do? Here is a talk by Salman Khan (No, not THAT Salman Khan) about how he got the idea about creating small videos about different topics which grew so much and went on to become one of the largest online high-school and undergrad level learning website. (Let's use video to reinvent education) (My favourite line - “If Isaac Newton had done YouTube videos about Calculus, I wouldn't have to!”) You can also go through this video for Khan's motivation and ideas (Year 2060: EducationPredictions)

And Salman Khan isn't the only one doing this, there are plenty of others who are following the same tracks where they want to convolve (YouTube like) videos to teach common things to students with exercises on websites which will monitor their progress, while teachers can focus on individual educational needs of children.

Another interesting video that I came across was by John Green. (PaperTown Academy) He talks about his thoughts as a student on growing up and getting a job, how he became a learner, and how the online community encourages students to get engaged into learning in a very entertaining way!

To finish off this compilation, I would recommend you to watch the following video (The Future of Learning, Networked Society ).

You can see that we are on the verge of a significant change in the educational system and it has already began and all of us should do whatever possible to improve the lives of the next generations!